Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Hello readers. Royal Music is over. But it's not a bad thing. We're more or less changing names. 15 Minutes To Listen is the new name. Royal Music was made to be the mp3 blog that coincided with Royal Magazine. Now that Royal Magazine is over, I felt that it would be best to get rid of the Royal name everywhere (including here). Fifteen Minutes To Live is the new main blog, so 15 Minutes To Listen will be the new mp3 blog to go along with it. I hope everyone follows me over there. And to the other mp3 blogs out there, if I linked you here, I'll link you there. I still got love for what you all do. Hope to see you all over there hitting up the comments and the email.

Friday, February 11, 2005

This Right Here Is Buck 65 is Buck's first major label American release on V2 Records. It serves as sort of a sampler of Buck's prior material. However, most of it is culled from his most recent album Talkin Honky Blues and the various other songs that came out via the Buck A Month club. So, if you're already a Buck 65 fan you might just want to save your money and wait. If you're new to Buck, you'll probably enjoy this album, but you won't be getting the full spectrum of Buck's career. "Cries A Girl" is a song that was originally on Square. So it was untitled, but was commonly referred to as Stella. I liked the original version better.

Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham aka Palace) has teamed up with Matt Sweeney of Chavez and Zwan. In all honesty, I have no clue who Matt Sweeney is, but as a big Will Oldham fan I was excited about this release. It's much different than his recent Bonnie Prince Billy releases. It's not slow (slocore?) like Master and Everyone or a slick Nashville sounding production like Sings Palace Greatest Music. This new album sounds much closer to the dirty, bluesy sound of earlier Palace releases like Viva Last Blues. Oldham is as weird as ever with lines like, "Well I have often said that I would like to be dead/ In a shark's mouth." And I absolutely love it.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

A Healthy Distrust, the first Epitaph release for Sage Francis, is in stores today. If you like Sage, then of course this album is for you. However, if you haven't liked Sage in the past, you might still like this album. This album sounds much different then his prior two official releases, Personal Journals and Hope. This time around Sage tackles a variety of topics and works with a handful of diverse producers including Dangermouse, Alias, Daddy Kev, Reanimator, and more. The album has a little bit more of a rock feel, which should help him get some radio play on modern rock stations and maybe even a video on MTV2.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Apparently Bright Eyes is pretty popular now. I've never understood all of the hype that has surrounded this band, but I'd rather hear their stuff on the radio then some of the other bands out there. The lead singer, Conor Oberst, at least can write some good songs. "Lua" is one of those good songs. It's simple musically, but with great lyrics. It's the type of song that I'll listen to over and over again because certain lines in the song seem to be nearly perfect.
(Note: the song is hosted on Amazon, so you'll need to be signed in to download it).

Monday, January 31, 2005

Return To NY is the debut album by AK Momo. The group consists of Ak Von Malmburg on vocals and optigan and Mattias Olsson on optigan, orchestron, and mellotron. The lush melodies combined with the beautiful, dreamy vocals make music that is perfect chilling. You'll probably be down with this if you like Joanna Newsom, Bjork, or Portishead.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Sin Carne is the latest from Anticon's Sole. It's the lead single from Sole's upcoming album Live From Rome, which should be out later this year. The track is an Odd Nosdam production. From the Anticon website:

"Sin Carne," is an odd nosdam produced classic with a chorus that nods to Bob Dylan. sole wastesno time by immediately citing his targets in the song's intro-- "talking shit about the government," "people," "ignorance," "alienation," and "marginalization." Always sure not to take himself too serious-ly, sole never loses his signature, self-deprecating sarcasm."

I see Michael is back, which is excellent; his shoes are no simple feat to fill. I wanted to leave you with this one final track before my tenure here is over. Pop a cappella music includes some of the worst music in the universe. It's just frelling horrible 90% of the time - cheesy, monotonous, and stupidly slick. Austin-based Schrödinger's Cat, meanwhile, managed to release a few tracks that were blazingly badass, including this Prince cover that remains in my deejay set to this day. Their "big beat a cappella" style utilizes stomping, clapping & body slapping for percussion, and seven voices were involved in making this recording. The human voice is where it all started when you're thinking about music, and precious few tracks these days really capture how dynamic the voice can be. Dig it, and enjoy.

If you liked what you heard while I was hosting, please drop by Comfort Music for "mp3 love, 5 days a week". We now return you to your regularly scheduled Royal Music, already in progress!

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Hello everyone, I've just returned to cold, cold New York after a couple of weeks in Florida. I'd like to thank Scott, Miph, and Sean for keeping the site going while I was gone. They did a very good job. I should be back daily from now on.

Today's song comes from the Pedestrian. Jane 2 has been available since last May on the Anticon Label Sampler and on the Anticon website. However, the Pedestrian's full length album is finally available. After many months of supposed release dates, Unindian Songs has been released. I've never found the Pedestrian's earlier random tracks to be that interesting, but after hearing Unindian Songs, the Pedestrian easily rises to the cream of Anticon's crop in my opinion.